roys

If it is that far gone then it sounds like it has become one with nature anyway especially at the bottom of your pile, perhaps if anything just lift / wrestle the top uncomposted stuff of the top to burn. As said hard to tell without a pic.

Nowt more than a pair of gloves, you know we are right, don’t just torch the pile it either needs left for nature or moved.

I regularly leave piles of brash, some of them get left to the nature gods some of them I burn depending on location. The burn ones are usually left about 6 to 12 months to dry out. As mentioned in the thread I start a fire about 2 meters away from the brash pile usually on an old pallet and just hand ball the stuff across, my brash piles are big but you can rattle through them in a couple of hours, the worst bit is the smoke chasing you around trying to sting your eyes. PS don’t wear your good fleece as it will be covered in spark holes by the end of it. We have hedgehogs and there is no way I would just torch one of the piles without moving it.

Look at it as a brunch, so you can go light on your real lunch, I was and still am happy for food to be put down in front of me, and that brekkie did look good😀

Look forward to your review of that welder, my brother is looking for a new welder.

Pottering about with my chimney pot, went up to clear a blockage in the chimney, went to take of the bird guard and the pot broke away about 50mm from base quite a neat break right round, lucky I had a tube of anchor resin so cleared the blockage, wee wire brush round the break, bead of resin , stick pot back together and jobs a good un. Will order a new pot and fit in the summer as there was a few hairline cracks in the pot.

Doing a good job there

I have just got a pair of riggers boots of the shelf in my workshop that have been there for a couple of years, still in box, never opened them, stuck my nail in the sole and it was like chewing gum. So thanks to this thread I have a bit space on my shelf, but not impressed I have just chucked an unworn pair of boots into the bin, what a waste.

Steve’s small engines on YouTube is not a bad starting point for chainsaw stuff

I burn a lot of goat willow, it’s free, so it’s great fire wood.

Not quite answering your question re timber type but I recently saw used in an entertaining room and then for sale in B&Q were proper sound proof flat panels but with strips of vertical wood guessing 20 x 20mm strips, I thought it looked smart, I will have a search and see if I can get a pic. I'm thinking could you make your own with your own timber buy the acoustic material and add your timber.

Sorry edited my 2nd post while you were posting, damaged trees get removed as they are usually a hazard or a hazard waiting to happen. Trees close to each other don’t bother me as much.

PS forgot to add, the knowledge, advice, contacts, help I have received from this forum has been a huge help so stick around. Also by wind damaged I mean trees that have blown over, trees that have snapped, trees that are now leaning on others, the hung up ones and leaners can take a bit of thinking about if you are not used to it to enable it to be done safely. Re chainsaws I currently have 3 saws of different sizes, which would probably be classified as “farm” saws which aren’t as good as the pro saws that most of them use on here but are better than the £100 diy standard saws, I am not on the saw for 8 hours a day though, probably about 3 or 4 hours a week so a farm saw is good enough for me, Stihl or a Husky are the ones to go for.

My woods look very similar to yours, when I first got the place I got an environmental guy in to give advice as we were wanting it to be a bit of a nature haven but be safe (right to roam in Scotland) and be able to keep me in fire wood. The advice was: Remove and destroy the rhododendrons, ongoing and constant battle. Keep unofficial natural paths clear. Remove trees that get damaged in wind, this is what keeps me supplied in fire wood, about 10 cube a year. Rhoddy gets burnt on site after it gets pulled up and piled up and dried out for a bit. Big bits do go to my firewood cubes. The smaller branches from the trees that get sorted out get piled up in brash piles for little nature havens. I used a quad bike and trailer for extracting the timber out. Needless to say the safe use of a chainsaw is a must, no chance of doing it by hand in my lifetime. Some areas of my place are a bit wet and boggy so a decent 4wd with diff lock quad bike was essential for me.